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Sex Sells. 

Buy freedom instead.    

“The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor,

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

… to comfort all who mourn…

to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit.” Isaiah 61:1-3

We’ve all heard that the harvest is plentiful, but that the workers are few. This month, our team is honored to work at Zion Café, part of a ministry called Lighthouse in Action (LIA) whose aim is to prevent and rescue women, children, and men from the sex tourism (slavery) industry here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Let me tell you a little more about what’s going on here…

Thailand is a place where sex sells, and everyone in the world knows it. Prostitution is illegal, yet it is still promoted by the government. The roughly 5,000 girls selling their bodies that flood the bar scene every night (in about a single block radius) increases to ~25,000 during peak sex tourist season. Women in high heels and skimpy clothing line the streets. Young girls call out to you from the endless line of massage parlors. The beckoning calls of exotic women inviting you in for a drink is just what you see on the surface, though. If you dare to peel back the curtain, you see the horrifying truth of what’s really driving the sex tourism industry here.

Firstly, most of the prostituted girls here are recruited from poor villages through their families. Men come into the villages and offer jobs to parents’ daughters under false pretenses such as, “waitresses,” “hotel workers,” or other legitimate jobs. The girls (targeted at ages 13-15) often start out in those jobs, but are quickly asked to “go with customers.” The pimps send money home to their parents, and no questions are ever asked. So I ask myself, are these girls truly here of their own accord, or are they enslaved? According to the UN definition of human trafficking, the answer is clear:

“the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” 

You, like me, are probably asking why a girl would never admit this, though! Why wouldn’t she just go running back to her loving parents and tell them what’s going on? The simple answer is that it wouldn’t matter. The complex answer is that there are fundamental issues deeply rooted in the culture. In this Eastern, shame-based culture, children actually feel obligated and indebted to their parents for bringing them into the world (the exact opposite of Western culture), so to refuse this work would be to shame your parents and your own existence. Furthermore, paying for women and girls and for sex has become a norm, an accepted way of life here. It has become so accepted, in fact, that when poor families have daughters, they feel a sense of relief, because they know that they can at least sell them “if things get too bad.”

Clearly this cultural mindset needs to be changed; a shift must occur before slavery can come to a complete end. But right now, one woman (Emmi) is making a difference in Chiang Mai, Thailand through her ministry LIA. We want to make a difference! Through this ministry, our team has been entrusted to go out to the bars and build relationships with these women – to show them genuine love, to touch them without shame, to share with them Hope, and to offer lasting protection and opportunity for a real, beneficial career.

I’d like to share with you all one woman’s story. Emmi took in M, who came from a poor family where she received constant pressure from her parents to provide. She tried to work doing other things, but never made quite enough money for her family. Her mother told her she was only good for sex, and that she would have to sell herself. Though she didn’t want to, the cultural and family pressures proved to be too much, and she finally went to work in the bars. Though M would not be considered trafficked, her testimony is nonetheless incredible.

(link to watch it here).

Anyone – slave or enslaver – is invited to come work at Zion Café, the coffee shop ministry of LIA. If they are willing and able to leave the industry, they will be provided with a place to live, 3 meals a day, and a monthly wage, for about $300 USD per month.

Is any daughter worth selling? Is any daughter worth BUYING? As an American, I am convinced that the only thing that sells more than sex is FREEDOM. So please, be part of setting this world free from ALL forms of slavery!

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP

  • Donate to our team to go out to the bars and minister to these women by sending a PayPal donation to [email protected]. Your donations will cover:
    • Hanging out with the girls outside of the bars (dates, adventures, etc.)
    • Non-alcoholic drinks (about $30-50 per night)
    • Showering the girls with gifts (#1 love language in Thailand)
    • Bibles and other materials
    • Any excess funds will be donated to LIA to support Zion Café, Love Acts, and X-Life.
  • Support Lighthouse in Action directly (scroll down for tax-deductible options).
    • $300 USD per month brings Hope of a new career and a new life to a man/woman/girl.

How else can you make a difference?

When I graduated from high school (in one of the wealthiest areas in the country), our speaker said this, which still rings in my ears today:

“The question is not are you blessed, but why are you blessed?”

So then, let us be faithful in what we have been entrusted with to help fight injustices like these throughout the world. Let us partner with Christ to set every captive free!